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Monday, May 31, 2010

It was Ottawa's Race Weekend, I was 24 weeks pregnant and I ran a 10k!! Ok, I only ran for about 2-3 minutes on the course, but the rest of the way, I walked "fast".

We arrived to Ottawa by train on Friday afternoon - traveling by train was perfect, S and I got to relax and chat without having to drive all the way. When we got there we took a taxi to the hotel - that's when we realized what a good idea not having to drive in Ottawa was - there are lots of one way streets and lots of winding streets in Ottawa, would have been confusing...

We arrived at our hotel, relaxed for a few minutes, and then we walked to the "Fitness Expo'' to get my race kit. It was a good 8km to and from, so we walked at a relaxed pace - I didn't want my legs to be sore for the race! It was nice to walk all along Bank Street and see a bit more of the city :)

The day of the race, we walked around the ''By Ward Market'' a bit, and then we went back to the hotel to relax a bit, the race was at 6h30 pm.

Here is the obligatory belly/pre-race shot...

Wow there was a ton of people at the start line!!

My official spectator :)

Who is also my official photographer :)

I didn't put too much pressure on myself, just an ideal time to finish the race in 10 minutes per kilometer. I was happy to notice a lot of people who looked like they were there to walk the 10k - they had walking sticks and everything... It was kind of encouraging to think I wouldn't be the last to cross the finish line and/or the only one walking...

My heart rate was much better this time, better than at Harry Rosen's 8km, but my legs - they worked hard, I felt my calves and thighs getting tired real quick... At the 2k mark I though -woah, will I be able to do this for 10km?!! But kilometers passed and my legs got used to the feeling... Enough to change my mind as of km #6 where I thought - pffff I can totally do this!!!!

Just like at Harry's 8k, S came to meet me on the course at around 9km - oh how good it was to see him and also to realise that I was almost done!

The only weird thing or 'discomfort' that I felt during the race came at around 6-7km - it was really warm outside, I had been walking for more than an hour... MY HANDS!!! They swelled up like balloons - I could not recognize them anymore! They reminded me of that episode of Seinfeld where Jerry was uncomfortable dating this girl because she had man hands!!

Ok, Maybe it's not that obvious here but trust me, my hands are usually slimmer than that. I'd say they are a third bigger than they usually are - I asked S and he says they were 37% bigger ha ha ha! It took a few hours before I could put my rings back on... I was so glad I had decided to remove them before the race!!

Official Results:

I was the 8275th person to cross the finish line out of 8497 runners

My 'Gun Time' is 1:46:56

My 'Chip Time' or 'real time' is 1:39:32

(99 minutes 32 seconds- mission accomplished!!!:)

In my category I finished: 831/845

and for women overall, I finished: 4839/5020

Not bad at all!!!

On Sunday morning, before leaving for Toronto, we had the chance to see some of the marathonand half marathon runners, from the comfort of our hotel room - the view from our room was fantastic!

I want to say a big congratulations to Laura who ran the 10k in Ottawa ''for real'' this weekend.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Things are moving along here. I am now 20 weeks and 5 days pregnant and I am starting to feel the baby a little bit. Not consistently yet, but still, there was a moment today when I felt something and it was clearly the baby moving for sure... I am a whooping 30 pounds heavier already - that's scary because that means I'm back to my pre-WW weight. And I know that it's more than the recommended weight gain.... more on that in an other post... :)

I wanted to go back to the questions that you asked a while ago. I haven't been blogging very often, but I still had these questions on my radar, I am going to answer a few now. Thank you so much to the readers who submitted questions!!!!! :)

How am I preparing for the baby:

To be perfectly honest, I have not really started to prepare for the baby much yet. Getting the right medical care and figuring out how to handle being pregnant has taken most of my mind until now. We have just started to think about the nursery and the items we will need once the baby arrives. We're going to build a Babies R Us registry soon for our friends and family - we have a really small house and I want to avoid people getting us too much stuff....

I think that it's starting to feel more real now that I have a bigger belly and that I'm starting to feel the baby, and I think that's going to give me that push I need to get things done. I still have some time though! :) I'll definitely post about things I prepare as I prepare them, so keep visiting for updates:) I plan to post a little more often from now on (at least once a week...)

Announcing the news to S:

We were pretty much "actively trying" to conceive, so we were both following the signs closely. I was sad when 'TOM" came, but when it stopped a couple days later (and was very light) I was suspicious (My TOM is usually pretty heavy and lasts forever, 8+ days at times...) So I did a test on a week day morning, before having a shower and heading out to work, and well, it said I was pregnant! I was shocked - I knew how little chance there was that we would be lucky enough to become pregnant on the first try! I wanted to tell S right then and there, but I had to finish with showering and I wanted to come up with a clever way of saying it. When the time came I opened the door and asked him:

"Do you know anyone who's a 'Virgo'?"

He said he didn't. That's when I pulled out the stick and showed him: "Well, you will in September!"
He had a big grin on his face, I think he was really happy. We were both really happy to know that quick that we were successful, we were going to have a baby!
That day was the longest work day ever, I was distracted all day!!! :)

S is English, Cinemarie is french...

S and I always had an understanding that my language is extremely important to me, and that our children would speak french fluently as much as they would speak english. There's no question in my mind - I want them to speak french not as a second language, but as their own language. I want them to think in french. We've been talking about having kids for a long time (I think we were talking about it in the first few weeks of our relationship, almost 8 years ago...) and I've always said that I would speak to our kids ONLY in french, and that he could speak to them ONLY in english. That way they have an easier way separating the languages.

I've read a lot about the subject and it looks like most people say it's the best way to go. I know it's going to be slightly challenging because S doesn't speak french, and also because the world around us is all in english, but I am going to try my hardest to never switch to english.

One thing that is going to help us is that we also plan to sign with our baby. Ever heard of that? When I heard of signing to your baby and saw that very young little girls and boys were signing way before they had the capacity to use words I was fascinated. I bought a book about it last weekend because I want to get a head start in learning the signs. This is the book: Baby Sign Language Basics: Early Communication for Hearing Babies and Toddlers, New & Expanded Edition PLUS DVD! So far it's great. It comes with a DVD where they sign all the signs from the book, so you can clearly see the proper way to do it. I played it once and I already have most of them memorized, well, most of the important ones (I memorized important signs like 'careful' but not all the signs that are less important like the ones about farm animals...) I'm really excited to start signing with our baby!! I can't wait!!! :)

The one good thing about this book is that they use actual ASL signs which are used all over the place. The great thing about ASL and signing in general, in our bilingual family, is going to be that the signs will kind of act as a 'bridge' between the languages. The same sign will be used for both a french word and an english word... I think it'll help S learn a bit of french too!! :)